Software patents: Ars contributor Tim Lee’s op-ed in the New York Times

Timothy B. Lee, a frequent contributor to Ars Technica, has written an excellent op-ed piece on software patents that was published over the weekend in the New York Times. It's a topic he has covered extensively, and he makes a strong case against the US system of granting software patents, saying that software companies need copyright protection more than patent protection.

In fact, companies, especially those that are focused on innovation, don’t: software is already protected by copyright law, and there’s no reason any industry needs both types of protection. The rules of copyright are simpler, and protection is available to everyone at very low cost. In contrast, the patent system is cumbersome and expensive.

Tim also charts the evolution in Microsoft's thinking on the subject, starting with a 1991 memo from founder Bill Gates in which he warned that "some large company will patent some obvious thing" in order to "take as much of our profits as they want." It's a remarkably prescient memo that was penned shortly after the first software patents were granted in the 1980s.

In short, the "invention" described in these patents is combination of an excruciatingly obvious point—that it would be helpful for an Internet telephony application to have a mechanism for translating between phone numbers and IP addresses—and a series of "enhancements" to DNS servers that many network engineers would regard as a step backwards.

In his op-ed piece, he points out that playing the patent game is mandatory, not optional, and that independent invention is no excuse. In contrast to when Gates wrote his memo, "large companies now hold so many patents that it is almost impossible to create useful software without infringing some of them."

It's a contentious issue with voices crying out both for reform and the maintenance of the status quo. Where do you stand on the issue? Are software patents bad for the industry, or do they provide valuable IP protection for innovators?